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The Chinese Pistol team finished in the spotlight once again, at the ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events in Fort Benning, USA, where more then 400 shooters met to compete in the ten Olympic events of Rifle and Pistol shooting from the 22nd through the 31st of May

Ding Feng won today’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol men competition, ending up on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 786.5 points. The 23-year old Chinese shooter, coming from Bronze at the World Cup held in Beijing a few weeks ago, won here his second consecutive ISSF medal leading the match from the first to the last series. After qualifying with 589 points, he shot 197.5 points during the final, managing his head start on his followers to close with the Gold.

Ding’s teammate Li Yuehong, 20, who ha won the first two World Cup stages of the season in Sydney and Beijing, made it into today’s medal match with 583 points, ending up in fifth with a total score of 779.0 points

“We have no secrets, it’s just hard work and a bit of luck!” said the Gold medallist Ding right after the last final series “I train about four hour each day, following the tables of my coach, it’s hard work but it pays off”

The Chinese shooter, twice on the podium this year, looks forward to the next matches of the 2010 season “Of course the World Championship is an important competition, but I am focusing on each and every match with the same intensity – he said – I will be in Serbia, at the next ISSF World Cup Stage, and then hopefully at the World Championship, trying to grab one of those Olympic Quotas for China”.

Today’s Silver went to Italy’s first time World Cup finalist Riccardo Mazzetti, 26, who finished on the podium passing through an odd defying match. The Italian shooter, ranked 48th in the World, entered the match in second with 583 points, and landed on the podium with a total score of 785.1 points.

“This is my first World Cup medal. I had never been in an ISSF final, before, but I was not so nervous. It’s fun to be here shooting with these great athletes…” said Mazzetti, whose best placement in his career had been third place at the 2009 European Championship.

“I would not say that I was expecting a medal, here – Admitted the Italian athlete, who shot today’s highest score in the final, 202.1 points – We are trying to peak for the World Championship. We started training a little bit later, and I would say I am not at my best. Therefore this medal surprises me. It surprises me in a positive way!”

Bronze went to Beijing’s Olympian Leonid Ekimov of Russia. The 22-year old shooter, ranked nineteenth in the world, ended up in third place with a total score of 782.8 points, climbing up from the fourth place by scoring 200.8 points during the final.

20-year old Li Yuehong of China won his second consecutive World Cup Gold, followed by two young shooters in second and third place.

The 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men Final was a stage of success for young athletes, at the 2010 ISSF Word Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Beijing, as three shooters in their early 20s finished on the podium beating titled and expert shooters.

Spotlights were on the 20-year old Chinese finalist Li Yuehong, who won his second consecutive ISSF World Cup Gold medal in this event, just weeks far from his first victory in Sydney.

Li, who competed for the first time on the international scene last March at the first 2010 ISSF World Cup stage in Sydney winning an odd-defying Gold medal, repeated himself on the lines of the 2008 Olympic range of Beijing.

The home shooter made it into the final in first place, with a qualification of 585 points, and left no chances to his opponents. Supported by the home crowd cheering for him after every final series, the young athlete climbed up in first place with a total score of 785.8 points, after scoring 200.8 points during the final. The debuting shooter claimed his second consecutive Gold medal, climbing the World Ranking up to the third place, and frightening the Running Target establishment, the German shooters Reitz and Schumann who had been the protagonists of the last Olympic Games.

Following the 20-year old Lin, two young shooters placed in second and third place. Russia’s 24-year old Ivan Stoukachev secured the Silver medal with 783.4 points (582+201.4). China’s second finalist, the 2007 World Cup Final Silver medallist Ding Feng, 23, ended up in third place grabbing today’s Bronze with 778.8 (581+197.8) points.

The American athlete shot a total of 780.5 points (584+196.5), finishing in the lead with one tenth of a point of advantage on the following Vijay KUMAR, silver medallist with 780.4 pts ((581+199.4).

“I had memories of the Olympic Games going through my mind” said Sanderson, who had competed in this range at the last Games, struggling during the Olympic final round, and eventually landing in fifth place. He said: “I’ve been replaying the Olympic final and these targets so many times, after the Games, that I still remember them”

“I had so many things going through my head, today” Sanderson concluded “I am happy I was able to win the Gold medal. Next stop: Munich, for the next world cup stage”.

India’s Vijay KUMAR, a 23-year old shooter, 26th in the World Ranking, climbed all the way from the fourth place to win silver with 780.4 points (581+199.4). His score in the final match, 199.4 points, turned out to be the highest of today’s competition.

The Indian athlete had never won an ISSF medal in this event, but Beijing seems to be his favourite range. Here he had indeed shot his best placement, when he had finished in seventh place at the 2008 pre-Olympic world cup.

Bronze was secured by Japan’s Teruyoshi AKIMATA, 37, a long-course shooter who had never entered a world cup final-match before. AKIMATA shot the second highest final score, 198.5 points, climbing from the sixth place he had after the qualifications. The Japanese shooter grabbed his first world-level medal with a total score of 777.5 points (579+198.5).

Russia’s Dmitry BRAYKO finished in fourth place with 776.1 points (581+195.1), followed by Jan-Marcel GOELDEN of Germany, fifth with 774.4 pts (580+194.4) and by Jeorge LLAMES of Spain, sixth with 773.7 pts (581+192.7).

World Record holder Alexei KLIMOV of Russia won today’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol men event at the ISSF world cup in Changwon, Korea. The 33-year old Russian athlete won the final round with a total score of 790.2 points (590+200.2), starting the new season in the lead as he had finished the previous one by winning the 2008 World Cup Final in Bangkok.

Klimov won gold by defeating in the third and last relay Beijing’s Bronze medallist Christian REITZ, renewing a duel lasting since last year’s World Cup in Milan, when Reitz had tied Klimov’s 591-point record, and then set a new Final World Record of 794.0 points.
Today, the expert Russian shooter entered the final round in the lead with one point of head start, and did not live many chances to Reitz. The 21-year old German shooter did not fire his best final, landing in fourth place with a score of 784.4 points (589+195.4).

Silver went to USA’s Keith SANDERSON, who climbed from the third place to finish on the second step of the podium with a score of 787.3 points (589+198.3). “good to be on the podium, but I am not very happy with the today’s score. I haven’t been training that much after the Olympics. – Said the American shooter, who had placed in fifth at the Olympic final of Beijing, last year – I have been teaching shooting in Hawaii, but will train more, from now on.”

Bronze went to the 23-year old Chinese shooter Jian ZHANG, 23, who scored 785.7 points (588+197.7). He had never taken part in an ISSF international or continental competition before, and his prime performance highlighted once more the success of the Chinese team at this first ISSF world cup stage.

Korea’s KANG Min Su finished in fifth place, scoring 781.9 points (585+196.9), while the Russian pistol master Leonid EKIMOV finished in last after missing one of the targets in his first series.
Ekimov, who had won Gold and Silver in the 10m Air Pistol and 50m Pistol men events in the last days, could not recover from that mistake, and missed the chance to step on his third consecutive podium, landing in sixth place with 768.8 points (585+183.8).

Rapid Fire

Rapid Fire
The Rapid Fire Range at In Atlanta © 1998 Michael Ray

Imagine an event where the entire scored firing is completed in 72 seconds. That’s right, just over a minute total for all sixty shots! Of course it’s not quite as simple as stepping to the line and being finished two minutes later. In fact, it can be quite complicated to the new shooter, and is one of the more challenging of the shooting events.

Let’s move back to the basics. The match is fired with .22 caliber rimfire handguns and .22 Long Rifle ammunition (see below). The competition is fired as twelve, five shot strings, in varying times at five separate targets, placed 25 meters from the firing line. The shooter must fire in stages and the format is as follows:

First Stage (half of match):

• 1 string of 5 shots in 8 seconds used as a sighting/practice string (scored, but not counted in event)
• 2 strings of 5 shots in 8 seconds
• 2 strings of 5 shots in 6 seconds
• 2 strings of 5 shots in 4 seconds

After all shooters have completed the First Stage:

Second Stage (half of match):

• 1 string of 5 shots in 8 seconds used as a sighting/practice string (scored, but not counted in event)
• 2 strings of 5 shots in 8 seconds
• 2 strings of 5 shots in 6 seconds
• 2 strings of 5 shots in 4 seconds

The basic (or “Qualification Program”) portion of the match is completed. If you notice, the total scored, fired shots for each half was (8+8+6+6+4+4=) 36 total seconds. But, of course, there’s more to it. To begin with, the shooter advances to the line and is given the command to load after which he has one minute to load the magazine with five rounds, insert it into the firearm and prepare the gun to fire. He then adjusts his stance, etc., and brings the gun to a ready position, angled downward at forty-five degrees to the target and awaits the fire commands, which include a countdown:

• “Attention! … for paper targets, the targets are turned away; for Electronically Scored Targets (EST) the red light comes on
• Three, …
• Two, …
• One, …
• Start, … “

3 seconds after the last command, the lights at each target change from red to green for the allotted time (for paper targets, the targets turn to face the shooters). The shooter raises the gun and fires, during this “green” time, with one shot at each of the five targets. He is scored based on standard scoring rings, up to ten points per hit. If any shots occur outside the “green” time, they are counted as misses. A perfect score for the Qualification is 600 points.

At World-class or Olympic level, a “Finals” is fired by the top six competitors from the Qualification round. Each shooter fires 4 strings of 5 shots in 4 seconds. Each shot is evaluated to one-tenth of a point for a possible total of 218 additional points to add to the basic possible score of 600, for an overall possible score of 818 for a perfect match.

Equipment

• Pistols used in Rapid Fire have the same specifications as those used for Standard Pistol and 25m Pistol Women:
  • must fit inside a box (size 300 x 150 x 50 mm),
  • minimum 1000 grams trigger pull,
  • maximum 220 mm sight radius
  • the grip:
    • is not allowed to encircle the hand in any manner
    • cannot touch beyond the hand; i.e. the wrist must be visibly free when the pistol is held in the normal firing position.
  • no porting or venting of the barrel

• Ammunition for Rapid Fire Pistol (does not apply to 25m Standard Pistol , or 25m Pistol Women):
  • .22 Long Rifle (LR)
  • minimum 39 grains projectile weight
  • minimum 250 m/sec velocity (820.25 fps)

See Also

• ISSF Velocity Procedures